Court rules on FOIA and 1st Amendment question

COLUMBIA -- The S.C. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the non-profit state Association of School Administrators can’t argue that the state Freedom of Information Act infringes on its 1st Amendment right to speech and association.

A Charleston radio personality known as Rocky D. was denied documents he sought from SCASA and then appealed a circuit court’s decision that was in SCASA’s favor.

Rocky Disabato had requested emails and other internal communication in 2009 that related to the organization’s lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to force then-Gov. Mark Sanford to allow South Carolina to receive federal stimulus money.

In declaring that the FOIA does not violate the organization’s 1st Amendment rights, the court did not say whether SCASA is a public body subject to FOIA.

The court wrote that the 1st Amendment protects only private speech from government interference, and that, “if an organization is in fact a governmental entity or wholly a government instrumentality, it does not possess 1st Amendment rights.”

As an example, Wednesday’s court opinion added: “... a public employee speaking in the course and scope of her duties as a spokesperson for the government's message has no 1st Amendment right to avoid restrictions on that speech.”

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